


Lovers on the Sun

by youdidnt



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Pining, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:08:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9067159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youdidnt/pseuds/youdidnt
Summary: “I came here to make a proposal," Laurent says.“Speak, then,” Damen replies when Laurent doesn’t elaborate. “What is this proposal of yours about?”“I have noticed… your advances.”__When Damianos of Akielos goes to King Auguste's wedding, he did not expect to end up pretending to be Prince Laurent's lover.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [karuvapatta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karuvapatta/gifts).



> This could very easily have been a long oneshot (which I prefer to multi-chaptered fics) but then I procrastinated and had only two weeks left to write and decided that I'd rather post a very thoroughly edited first chapter than a half-assed long oneshot.  
> I also found that it is very hard (read: impossible) to write the fake relationship trope without clichés so expect some (read: ALL) of them.
> 
> Dear Karuvapatta,  
> I really, really hope you like this! I tried to work in a few of the prompts you gave me. Happy reading :)

With lips drawn into a tight line, Damianos of Akielos tries to understand the meaning of the book currently lying open in his lap. It had caught his attention in the library earlier, the colourful cover standing out against the other greying books. He had thought his Veretian good enough to understand it, but his current confusion about the vocabulary is proving him wrong. He squints his eyes in the low light of the burning lamps, but it only makes the words blur together.

All is silent except for the crackling fire – that is until the sound of a firm knock disturbs the peace, echoing through the room.

There is less than a week left until King Auguste’s wedding and the palace of Arles had stopped sleeping days ago to prepare for the festivities, but despite all this it is well past respectable visiting hours. The reason for this late night disturbance must either be an important one or the disturber does not care much for social conventions.

In a place like Arles, this narrows down their identity to only a few people.

“Come in,” Damen calls from where he is sitting in front of the fireplace, putting his book down. When the door swings open, a guard with an apologetic look on his face steps into his view. Behind him is another person. The corridor is dark, but Damen can make out the shine of golden hair glowing in the dim light emerging from his room.

Damen cannot say he is surprised.

“My Lord,” the Akielon guard says. “I apologize for disturbing you at so late an hour, but Prince Laurent of Vere demanded to talk to you. He was very persistent about it.”

“It is alright,” Damen says with a smile that makes the guard slump his shoulders in relief. “Let him in.”

Nodding, the guard takes a step back and Prince Laurent enters the room in his stead. If it were not for his distinctive hair, Damen would almost have not recognized him: Rather than his tight-laced Verethian clothing, Laurent is wearing a simple white undershirt that falls open around his neck, revealing marble white skin that is usually hidden by a high collar. The linen pants are hanging loosely on his hips and Damen can’t help but think about how much easier it must be to take these clothes off than the ones he usually wears.  
Laurent’s hair, usually held in a tight braid at court, sits in a loose ponytail low on the back of his head.

Even though he is clothed like a commoner, he still holds himself like a prince, shoulders drawn back and chin held high. This, his expression and the fact that he is Laurent, suggest that he didn’t decide to visit the guest chambers on a whim.

“Prince Laurent,” Damen smiles, gesturing to a chair identical to his own next to him. “Please sit. How can I help you at this late hour? Is there something I can help you with for your brother’s impending wedding?”

Laurent holds his gaze for a long moment, seemingly searching for something. Damen has nothing to hide and so he looks back, still smiling, until Laurent has found what he was looking for and finally crosses the distance of the room. When he sits down next to Damen, the tension never leaves his body.

His eyes fall on the book on the table and he raises a fine eyebrow.

“I didn’t know you could read,” he speaks in Veretian, leaning his chin on a hand so small that it could fit twice into Damen’s.

“Ah, you caught me,” Damen says with a laugh and picks up the book to skim through the pages. “I actually don’t know what this book is about; I found the vocabulary too hard for me. But surely you didn’t come all the way to my rooms just to insult me.”

Shifting his weight forward, Damen puts the book back on the table and rests his forearms on his thighs, ever so slightly leaning towards Laurent. He looks the other prince up and down, trying to find anything in Laurent’s body language that tells him about why he is here. Laurent has always been hard to read, like a book in a completely different language, so Damen is surprised to find that Laurent is picking at his nails and averting Damen’s gaze.

Ever since Damen had seen Laurent for the first time at the signing of the Treaty of Marlas, he had never seen him to be nervous, even though there had been plenty of occasions for him to be. He is curious as to what about this particular situation makes Laurent appear to be so on edge.

“I didn’t,” Laurent says. “I came here to make a proposal.”

“Oh?” Damen quirks an eyebrow. He had never been the subject to one of Laurent’s ploys before, but he has seen what Laurent is able to do with words alone; they work like poison, clouding the minds of others without being noticed and when realization finally hits them, they’ve already fallen prey to his plans.  

“Speak, then,” Damen says when Laurent doesn’t elaborate. “What is this proposal of yours about?”

“I have noticed… your advances.”

Damen can’t suppress the laughter that escapes his throat and he watches with delight as the colour rises high in Laurent’s cheeks.

“I am glad me openly trying to court you has not gone unnoticed,” he smirks with a wink that makes Laurent roll his eyes, the colour not leaving his face.

“Well,” Laurent answers. “I am here to tell you I am not opposed to this… offer.”

Both of Damen’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. There is an unspoken challenge in Laurent’s eyes, as if he was daring Damen to make fun of him again.

As much as Damen wishes it were true, appearing in his chambers well after midnight and agreeing to accept his courtship, after Damen’s last attempt dates back to his last visit to Arles months ago, is not something Laurent would do. He crosses his arms in front of his chest and asks with a less collected voice than he would like “Why? Why now?”

Laurent looks at Damen from under his eyelashes, shooting him a heated look that makes all the blood in his body go south and smirks in a way Damen did not know he was capable of.  
“Can’t a man have needs?” he murmurs with a low voice. It is angering Damen how weak he is when it comes to Laurent: He knows exactly what Laurent is doing, how he is playing him, but he can feel his body reacting nonetheless.

“He can,” Damen says after he cleared his throat. “But not Laurent of Vere.”

The smirk falls from Laurent’s lips the second he realizes his act has stopped working. He returns to his former collected self and crosses his arms in defiance.

“Could have worked,” he sighs.

“Caring to share the real reason why you are here?”

“Don’t think too much of it,” Laurent snarls. “I would not be here if I were not truly desperate.”

One advantage of keeping a close eye on Laurent over the years is that Damen knows there are few things that make Laurent desperate. There are even fewer things that would make him ask anyone for help that is not Auguste. This, and Auguste’s wedding, make Damen ask “What is it? Is something wrong with Auguste?”

Laurent turns his head, eyes slightly widened and mouth hanging open. It is one of the most vivid expressions Damen has ever seen on Laurent’s face and he tries to savour it as long as he can.

“You are not as dumb as you look, after all,” Laurent mutters under his breath. Damen lets out a huff in amusement.

“Why, thank you.”

Laurent ignores him.

“I need your utmost trust with this, Damianos. You cannot tell anyone about this.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Damen counters.

“Because I am not risking antagonizing the future king of the country that is our most trusted ally. Use your head, Damianos: What good would it do Vere to anger you? Especially since we are still weakened by the civil war in Lys?”

He brushes a strand of blond hair behind his ear and looks Damen straight in the eyes. Damen stares back, finding honesty in the depths of blue irises, but also something akin to fear, and desperation.

“Trust in the fact that I am desperate enough to ask you for help. If I were seeking war, I would not be here but rather watch my brother die at the hand of my uncle.”

“The Regent?” Damen asks in disbelief, shifting further towards Laurent. While Damen knew almost nothing about him, he had gotten to know the Regent as a capable man in matters of war as well as a kind uncle to his nephews. Never had he suspected him to plot against his own king.

“Do you have proof for these accusations?”

“ _Of course_ not, or else he would be rotting in a dungeon by now,” Laurent says with bitterness in his voice. “He has been trying to get rid of me and Auguste ever since father died, but Auguste won’t see it. He still trusts our uncle with his life, which is very convenient for him, because he is getting desperate in his attempts to kill my brother. Auguste’s marriage to Marie means they will produce an heir soon, who is yet another person standing in between my uncle and the throne. He will try to have Auguste killed before his wedding and blame it on Akielos to start a war, but he is being cautious…”

Damen tries to connect the dots in his mind, seeking the reason as to why the Regent would be cautious now and what Laurent has to do with it. When realization hits him, his eyes widen slightly.

“Because of you. He knows that you know,” he says slowly, gaining him another look of surprise, but this one is gone as soon as it appeared.

“Yes. After my interference in Lys my uncle knows what I am capable of.”

“Your interference in Lys?”

“Lys was just another scheme by my uncle, trying to prove Auguste was not fit for ruling. I helped Auguste… take care of the rebels.”

Damen had only head stories about Lys: After months of bloody fighting, the rebels, trying to overthrow the governing system, had been able to convince to sign a peace treaty, something no one in Akielos had deemed possible at this point. A little breathless at the revelation, Damen stares at the other prince, who still looks so young, almost like a boy, and can’t help but wonder which part he played in the war and what it is exactly that he is capable of. The thought makes him shiver.

There is another unanswered question Damen desperately wants to know the answer to.

“Forgive me for being daft,” Damen says and gets a snort in reply. “But I don’t see yet how us pretending to be lovers – if that is what you want – is going to help the situation.”

“Simple,” Laurent explains. “I – we –need a diversion. My uncle knows I am watching him, so he must think I am too distracted to stop him. It is the only way I can get him to do something rash and foolish so I can catch him in the act.”

“A risky plan,” Damen contemplates.

“Every plan involving my uncle is a risk,” Laurent agrees. “Of course he will be suspicious, which is why it is most important that our… _affair_ is as convincing as possible. We can’t allow ourselves any slip-ups."

"Why me? Why not someone you trust?"

"If I had asked someone from the castle, my uncle would have thought we had been planning this all along for some time. But you only just arrived here and we are not known to be very close to each other. You and Auguste, on the other hand, are: I believe you want to save Auguste as much as I do.”

“Why not my brother, then?” At this, Laurent scoffs.

“Please. I do have some standards.”

“And I am meeting them?” Damen asks with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Yes,” Laurent simply replies and takes Damen by surprise. And, oh, there is the faint blush again that Damen definitely wants to see more of.

He leans forward in his chair, rests his forearms on Laurent’s thighs and grins up at him from under dark eyelashes.

“Did you have anything in mind to start with this… what did you call it… ‘ _affair_ ’?”

“Yes, actually,” Laurent answers, meeting his eyes. “How noisy are your guards?”

“Depends on if there is something to talk about,” Damen murmurs. He watches with a leer as Laurent removes the tie from his hair, making the long strands flow over his shoulders like spun gold, and opens the first two buttons of his shirt.

“Will that suffice to make them talk?” he asks with an almost unnoticeable quiver in his voice. To Damen, this small hitch in Laurent’s voice is so much better than the fake, self-confident flirting from earlier.

“Not quite,” he says, voice low. “Is this really all you can think of, Prince Laurent?”

“I was relying on you for that as you are clearly the person with more experience in… _this_ ,” Laurent retorts. 

Damen can feel Laurent’s tension from where he is leaning on his thighs. Not for the first time he thinks that, if the rumours are to be believed, Laurent has no experience in matters of relationships whatsoever. Even if what they are doing is just a farce, all this must be new to him. 

He leans out of Laurent's personal space and reaches out to take his hand in his own instead.

“I have a few ideas, but I am not planning on doing anything you do not want. So if I do anything you are not comfortable with…”

“If you are asking to kiss me, just get it over with,” Laurent interrupts and probably doesn’t sound nearly as nonchalant as he would like to. The quiver in his voice is back, and so is the blush, now even more prominent than ever and Damen feels heady from the thought of kissing Laurent alone. 

He reaches out to push the hair out of Laurent’s face, tucking it beneath his ear, and rests his hand on Laurent’s shoulder. Even though he has had more than his fair share of experience in kissing people, something like nervousness settles deep in his stomach as he slowly leans forward until he can feel Laurent's breath on his chin. He watches Laurent’s eyelids flutter in uncertainty, lashes brushing against his cheeks in feather-light touches.

Instead of bridging the gap between them, Damen revels in the anticipation, savouring the feeling of being so close to Laurent and yet not close enough.

“Well?” When Laurent speaks, his lips are brushing against Damen’s in something that is almost as intimate as a kiss but not quite.

“Eager, aren’t you?” Damen chuckles lowly. Even through his half-lidded eyes, Damen can see Laurent roll his eyes in annoyance. When Laurent reaches out to grab for Damen’s chiton to pull him into a soft kiss, he is grinning.

Laurent kisses him like Damen is a puzzle that he needs to solve with his lips alone, a moment of consideration before every new movement of his lips. Damen lets go of Laurent’s shoulder, reaching for the back of his head instead, tangling his hand in the fine hair.

Laurent tastes like peaches and fine wine and Damen wants more, wants to drown in the taste, but a nagging voice in the back of his head tells him to slow down, reminding him that this might be Laurent’s first kiss.

When Damen pulls away, Laurent makes a frustrated noise that ignites sparks in every part of Damen’s body, and Laurent pulls him back with a force that makes their teeth clash together. Tilting his head, Damen kisses him, really kisses him now, less deliberate and more urgent, wanting more of that dizzying taste and needing to hear that sound again like he needs air to breathe. He catches Laurent’s bottom lip between his teeth and pulls at it. The strangled sound that escapes Laurent’s throat is enough to almost undo Damen right there.

A smacking sound echoes through the room as their lips part, followed by heavy breathing. They should stop but Damen does not know how to, and he burrows his face in the crook of Laurent’s neck, inhaling deeply where his smell is the strongest. He can feel the flutter of Laurent’s pulse beneath his lips and he gently sucks on the skin, making Laurent’s pulse speed up even more and he wants –

“ _Stop_ ,” Laurent says, breathless and hoarse. Unable to follow his orders right away, Damen nips at the skin one last time before he pulls away.

“My apologies,” he barely manages to say through laboured breathing. “I got carried away.”

“You were not the only one, Prince Damianos,” Laurent replies. Damen looks up to take in the sight of the other prince and thinks: Oh. _Oh_. There is a faint, but visible mark right beneath his jawline, shade similar to the red blossoming on his cheeks. This, along with the mussed up hair and the partly unbuttoned shirt, makes him one of the most alluring appearances Damen has ever seen.

There are deep marks from where Damen is digging his fingernails in the cushion of his seat, exercising all of his willpower in order to make him stay seated.

“I think it is time for me to leave,” Laurent says, pushing himself out of his chair. “Are you going to lead me to the door or would you rather sit there and stare at the wall for the rest of the night?”

“And here I thought kissing you would make you less of a pain.”

Laurent smiles at his words, a small and honest smile that doesn’t leave his lips until they reached the door.

“Goodnight, Prince Laurent,” Damen says as he opens the door. There is no time for him to react when Laurent darts a look at the guards, almost too quick to be seen, and pushes himself up on the tip of his toes to place a lush kiss on Damen’s lips.

“Goodnight, Damen. I will see you at breakfast tomorrow,” Laurent whispers into his ear before he turns around, walking past two baffled looking guards.

Damen can’t help but watch his silhouette until it disappears in the darkness of the corridor. His lips are still tingling and he moves a hand up to touch them without even noticing, smiling to himself. 

 


End file.
